This Night
by TheBrokenQuill
Summary: Being alone on Christmas Eve is kind of pathetic. /Sort of sequel to Coffee Girl. AU, Sasuhina/


This fic is late for both Christmas and Hinata's birthday. e_e

I remember my Japanese teacher saying that for Japanese girls, somehow it's important to get someone to spend Christmas Eve with. Probably explains the influx of Christmas chapters in shoujo manga. So I decided to give this idea a shot with SasuHina…tell me how it is. This is a sequel of sorts to "Coffee Girl", but you don't have to read that to understand this.

Merry belated Christmas everyone! (Still works right? 12 days of Christmas, yannoe? XD)

---

Hinata stared dolefully at her cell phone screen. It was Christmas Eve, and she had just gotten off the phone with Ino, her colleague at Rose Café. She replayed the phone conversation in her head and sighed.

"_Hello, Ino?"_

"_Hi, Hinata!"_

"_I was wondering if you were busy tonight…"_

"_Sorry, love! No can do. I'm going out with Shikamaru tonight! It's Christmas Eve after all! Try Sakura, maybe she's free. Well, gotta go. See you!"_

But the problem was, Hinata thought glumly, she had already called Sakura, and ended the call with no appointment for Christmas Eve. Again. Her sister and cousin were out too, and the dismal prospect of spending Christmas Eve with her father and an entourage of servants only served to depress her further. How pathetic to not have a date for Christmas Eve!

Hinata flopped down on her bed and sighed again. Looking up at the glow-in-the-dark stickers on the ceiling, she briefly pondered her options for that night. I could stay at home with a tub of ice-cream and the TV, she thought, or take a walk…that's it! Yeah, maybe I'll feel better if I left the house.

Hinata rolled off her bed with renewed energy and grabbed her coat from the closet. She stuffed her purse into her pocket and left.

---

Hinata trudged through the slush aimlessly. All around her were couples and the occasional salary man, rushing home from work. She glared sourly at the bright Christmas decorations and music, as if daring them to be so…so…so cheery when she was feeling the exact opposite.

All of a sudden, the music seemed to stop. Hinata raised her head and looked around her blankly- where was this place? She cursed softly under her breath and tried to retrace her steps. If I get back to the main road, she thought, I'll be fine.

As she turned around, a dark figure staggered out in front of her. "Hello, little lady…a-all alonesh on Chrish-Chrish-Chrishmas are you? Wanna spend a night with me?" Hinata screamed loudly.

"Get away from me!"

"Whaaaat? You bitch! I'll get you!" The drunkard staggered towards her and swiped at her futilely. Hinata could smell his breath; it stank of liquor and spit. Hinata screamed again as his second lunge towards her almost hit her face. However, the man was unusually persistent, and thus ensued a strange dance of parrying and advancing in the darkness of the alley with Hinata's screams as a disturbing accompaniment.

Soon, the drunkard had her backed into a corner. Hinata put her hands protectively in front of her and shrunk backwards, whimpering.

"Nowsh I've got you!" the drunkard exclaimed triumphantly. "Save your screamsh for _later_, little lady!"

In a last ditch attempt, Hinata took a deep breath and let loose a last single, desperate plea.

---

Sasuke walked through the narrow streets stormily, his hands stuck deep in his pockets. A reveller passed by him and shouted cheerily "Merry Christmas!" but Sasuke ignored him pointedly. He was in another one of his bad moods again, this time the cause of which was his long time friend, Kiba. Kiba had messed up an important meeting by suddenly barging into the meeting room with a gaggle of girls at his heels. Needless to say, the contract that Sasuke had almost clinched was gone in a flash. He gritted his teeth and breathed deeply. Gods, that man…if they weren't long time friends he'd have fired him on the spot.

As he walked past a few of the back alleys and streets, he thought he heard a few muffled cries. He stopped for a moment, listening intently before he walked on, dismissing the sounds as those fabricated by his own imagination. First sign of insanity, he thought wryly, hearing voices. Just then, he heard a clear, shrill scream pierce through the air. "Definitely not my imagination this time," he muttered to himself. "This is real." The moon cast a faint glow upon his path as he ran towards the direction of the scream.

"This place is a bloody labyrinth!" he cursed under his breath. It seemed as though he was going in circles, yet he could hear the same muffled screams like those he had heard before. He plunged down another narrow alley, praying that he hadn't already gone down that path. Thankfully, he didn't, for he came upon a dead end where a man, clearly inebriated, was pressing a girl against the wall. Just some lover's tryst, Sasuke thought. Waste of time…

Sasuke spared the couple a glance before turning around. His eyes stopped on the girl's face. Wasn't that…? The girl turned towards Sasuke; urgency glazed her pale, light lavender eyes as she stared at him pleadingly.

"Oh, _shit_." Sasuke swore. It was her! It had to be her! Those eyes…

He ran towards the drunkard and shoved him aside roughly. It wasn't hard to, as he was already intoxicated and therefore, clumsy. The drunkard fell to the ground and tried to get up, but Sasuke glared at him and said in cold, level tones. "If you don't leave now…" he hissed.

The drunkard didn't wait to hear the second part. He scrambled away into the recesses of the shadows, and Sasuke let out a deep breath. He pulled Hinata to him and jerked her hand to get her moving. To his utter shock, she buried her head in his woolen pea coat and began to sob piteously. "Uchiha-san…" she cried. Sasuke sighed, perplexed, and patted her absently on the shoulder. "Come on, Hyuuga, let's go…" her muttered and pulled her along unceremoniously.

---

Somehow, Sasuke managed to find the way out of the mass of snake-like alleyways and little streets with a distraught Hinata still clinging on to him. He breathed in the cool air of the open gratefully; it was a nice change from the dank, sewer-like air in the alley. He turned to the task at hand. Now, what should he do with her?

Sasuke decided against bringing her to the local twenty-four hour fast food joint, since he hated crowds, and in the end he brought her to a building lobby. The lobby was sparsely furnished with benches and a lone, creaky vending machine, but it was warm and empty, so it would do for now. By then, Hinata had already calmed down considerably, and her tears were reduced to dry sobbing. He made her sit down and got her a can of milk tea from the vending machine, and for himself, a personal indulgence: tomato juice. For a while, there was no sound except for the steady hum of the heater and a brief crack of can tabs being pulled open.

They sat in companionable silence, and Hinata put down her half-empty drink can beside her. "T-thanks for just now," she said quietly, a bit of an old, long-forgotten speech impediment coming back. "A-and sorry for your j-jacket." She waved a hand vaguely at his jacket, which had a few faint, barely visible splotches.

"It's nothing. Are you okay now?"

"Mm…"

Hinata sipped from her drink can again and continued. "You know, I came out wanting to feel better. Instead…" she left the obvious statement unspoken.

"Feel better?" Sasuke prompted.

"I feel weird talking to someone else like this, but Uchiha-san, you…you feel okay. I didn't have a date for Christmas and I felt a little down so I came out to have a walk." Hinata said the last sentence in a rush, clearly embarrassed.

Sasuke permitted himself a little smile at her expense. "I see."

After they finished their drinks, neither made a move to leave. Sasuke sat quietly. He could handle silence. He loved silence; cherished it like a mother would a baby. It was a brief respite from his constant schedule of noise, noise and more noise.

Hinata scuffed the toes of her boots against the floor. She stared blankly at the clock, but feeling no real anticipation for the coming of Christmas. So there they sat, two figures silhouetted against the soft flurry of the snowflakes.

The hands of the clock moved to a vertical standstill, and shouts and cheers of happy revellers reverberated in the crisp night air.

Hinata glanced at Sasuke and smiled.

The city was alive, and so was Hinata.


End file.
